Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a control method therefor, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
There is a known image forming apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral)) which includes an image reading unit, a printing unit, an image storage unit and a communication unit, and which has image processing application such as copy, printing, scanning and FAX transmission/reception.
The MFP commonly has a function of recording the number of printed sheets for each department to which a user executing a function of copy, or the like, belongs.
The recorded number of printed sheets is utilized for billing or management of an upper limit of the number of printed sheets for each department. Therefore, the MFP assigns one user ID to one user, assigns a unique department ID to each department, and associates the user IDs with the department IDs. That is, users are classified and managed for each department.
In recent years, there have been increased cases where, in information equipment including an MFP, a concept of a group is introduced as a mechanism for classifying users, separately from the above-described department.
As an example of use of a group, a function of changing a printing method among black-and-white printing, color printing, and the like, according to a group to which a user belongs has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2006-85630).
As another example of use of a group, a function has been proposed in which an address book which stores FAX transmission destination telephone numbers is created for each group, and a user is allowed to use only the address book of the group to which the user belongs . While the group is similar to the department in that users are classified into a certain category, software for the department and the group is implemented separately because of the following reasons.
First, the department is often utilized as a category in an organization, while the group is often utilized as a category for each purpose of business or for each post. Further, the MFP has properties that a product is developed by expanding a function while inheriting the old function, while reflecting demands of customers of the market. Therefore, when a function relating to the group is newly added, it is preferable to employ a system in which the group is introduced separately from the department so as not to affect implementation of software relating to an existing department.
Based on such background, there now exists two grouping methods of a department and a group in one MFP, and databases for storing data corresponding to the respective groupings are independently prepared.
However, with the group management method proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) 2006-85630, the following problem occurs when the department and the group are made to coexist.
For example, in small companies, because posts are not minutely hierarchized, it is not necessary to classify users for each post, and it is only necessary to classify users for each department. That is, there is a case where it is desired to use the both functions of the department and the group while performing grouping using only the department according to an operation environment.
In such an operation environment, because an administrator needs to perform setting for each of the department and the group although grouping is performed using only the department, the administrator has to set the group which would not have been required, which causes a problem that the amount of setting work of the administrator increases.